Thursday, February 25, 2010

Mahmoud
al-Mabhouh's murder has been blamed on Mossad by the Dubai police
[Reuters]

Investigators in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
say they have identified 15 more suspects in the assassination of a
Hamas official at a Dubai luxury hotel last month.
Wednesday's announcement by Dubai police brings the total number of
people believed to be involved in the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh to 26.
The January 20 killing, allegedly carried out by
people who got into UAE using fraudulent passports, has been blamed on
the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, by the Dubai police chief.
The latest list included for the first time three passports
attributed to Australian citizens.Fraudulent passports
The new details bring the total number of passports allegedly
connected to the hit to 12 British, six Irish, three French, three
Australian and one German.
The police said that all the passports had proved to be fraudulent
and that the pictures did not match the names.
Authorities have been using immigration records and CCTV-captured
images of the suspects to try to piece together what happened in the
hours before al-Mabhouh's murder.
A spokesperson for Britain's foreign ministry told Al Jazeera: "We
can confirm that six more UK passports have been identified, we will
seek to make contact with these individuals and offer consular
assistance as we have the previous individuals.
"We continue to work closely with the Emirati authorities. The
foreign secretary and others have made clear we expect full Israeli
co-operation."Israeli 'ambiguity'
The Israeli government has neither confirmed nor denied any role in
the incident, saying it has a "policy of ambiguity" on covert
operations.

The
Palestinian group, which is opposed to Israel's existence as an
independent state, rules the Gaza Strip after seizing control from its
rival Fatah in 2007.

A senior Hamas official, meanwhile,
dismissed suggestions that someone within the group had leaked
information about al-Mabhouh's whereabouts endangering his life.

"Some
people are trying to say that there was leak inside Hamas [but] we
don't accept that," Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera on Tuesaday.
"We've information that we can share with the authorities and that
information clarifies how the Israelis got inside but not through a leak
inside Hamas."EU condemnation
The previously named British suspects have all been found to be UK
citizens living in Israel, and each claims their identity was stolen.
The use of stolen or faked passports to carry out extrajudicial
killings has drawn heavy criticism from Israel's European allies, with
all four nations involved summoning their respective Israeli ambassadors
for answers.
The European Union on Monday issued a short statement saying that
al-Mabhouh's assassination was "profoundly disturbing" and that its
citizens' rights had been violated.
"The EU strongly condemns the fact that those involved in this action
used fraudulent EU member states' passports and credit cards acquired
through the theft of EU citizens' identities," it said.
However, no direct mention of Israel was made in the statement.
-Al Jazeera-